Nadieh Schoots was back in action at the weekend with round five of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship taking place at Knockhill but it proved to be an unhappy visit to the Scottish circuit as the ILR Kawasaki rider was the innocent victim of another rider’s crash on the opening lap of the race.
The weekend got off to a slow start for Nadieh as problems with arm pump, the legacy of new leathers being too tight in both wrists, led to her lap times being compromised in Friday’s free practice session and then in the afternoon’s first qualifying session, she only managed one lap before another rider knocked her off at turn one.
Thankfully, Saturday’s second and final qualifying session saw the dry weather continue and although she was obviously lacking in track time compared to the rest of the field, she comfortably qualified for the race. And Sunday morning’s warm up saw her lap over half a second quicker as she got more and more dialled in with both the bike and the circuit.
The action around the 1.2-mile circuit was always going to be hectic for the duration of the 24-lap race and so it proved with Nadieh’s race over before it had begun. Matt Pearce crashed out at turn three on the opening lap and both Nadieh and Euan Meston got caught up in the ensuing melee and it left the Dutch girl battered and bruised.
Photo from Knockhill qualifying by www.burnoutmedia.uk
Nadieh Schoots: “I was really hoping that this would be one of my stronger rounds this year as I know the circuit well and it’s not a place where other riders come to a lot so they don’t have as great an advantage but it proved to be a bit of a struggle to be honest. My new leathers caused my quite a bit of arm pump on Friday morning so I had to ride round the problem and then in the first qualifying session I got taken out by another rider. That put me on the back foot but second qualifying went quite well and then I went quicker still in Sunday morning’s warm up so I was feeling a lot better heading into the race itself.”
“I wasn’t too happy with my start but I immediately gained back some ground through the first three turns. I felt happy and comfortable at that point but, unfortunately, one of the riders in front of me spun out at the top of the chicane and there was no way to avoid him. I’m obviously not happy with the weekend as two crashes have happened that have been out of my control. I’m leaving very much battered and bruisedwith my right calf being the worst due to damage to the muscle tissue. I’ll make sure I get plenty of rest before the next round at Snetterton and a massive thanks to the team for looking after the bike this weekend, I really appreciate them!”